Just a short event for us Wisconsinites to meet some local cachers and other travelers to trade pathtags and TB's. The Lend Lease Monument seems like an appropriate place to meet since we're both retired military aircraft mechanics who worked at Eielson AFB for many years. Geocaching had just started when we used to live here in Alaska and we're simply amazed at how many geocaches are now here.
The Lend-Lease Memorial is situated on the downtown riverfront in Fairbanks. The statue depicts figures of a Russian and American pilot circa WWII, commemorating the strategic and social importance of Alaska as a staging ground in the Lend-Lease program (1942-1945). In the program, nearly 8,000 aircraft and numerous other supplies were ferried to the eastern front from the Lower 48, over Canada and to Ladd Field (now Fort Wainwright, Alaska) where over 300 Russian pilots flew the planes over the Bering Strait and east to Russia. The memorial also commemorates the Women Airline Service Pilots (WASP) who participated in the Lend-Lease program. The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place in August 2006 at the Griffin Park site, where Russian, French, Canadian and American officials gathered to honor the program’s veterans.